MXene-Polymer Nanocomposite Fiber-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) utilizes the universal triboelectrification effect to harvest ambient mechanical energy by coupling contact electrification with electrostatic induction. Ferroelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer improves triboelectric charge density by utilizing spontaneous polarization making this an excellent candidate for flexible TENG. 2D nanomaterials like MXenes improve triboelectric performance, thanks to abundant electronegative surface terminating groups and high surface area. Furthermore, MXenes significantly improve the output power of PVDF and its copolymer-based TENG by dielectric modulation through microcapacitor formation and microscopic dipole generation through interfacial polarization. Here, we present Ti₃C₂T_x MXene-PVDF nanocomposite triboelectric fibers as energy-generating textiles by the scalable thermal fiber drawing. In this work, we will demonstrate three key outcomes: (1) rheological attributes for the successful drawing of nanocomposite fibers, (2) the effect of MXene addition and thermal drawing on the electroactive phase transition in fibers, and finally (3) the effect of MXene on the performance of TENG. The preliminary results of our fiber shows 2% increase in open-circuit voltage (upto 11.8 V), and 17% increase in short circuit current (upto 0.11 µA) upon 2.5 wt% of nanomaterials loading. The insights gained from this study will significantly contribute to our understanding of two-dimensional nanomaterials integrated fibers towards scalable fabrication of high-performance textiles.